After the first investment announcements of startup300, capital300 or the aws Gründerfonds, the focus fund Speedinvest i (short for “Industry”) is starting the new year with a round of financing. Together with “strategic partners” a million sum will be pumped into the Stuttgart startup drag & bot.
The spin-off of the Fraunhofer Institute for Production Technology and Automation (Fraunhofer IPA) fits in well with the fund launched last year (Trending Topics reported), which focuses on financing start-up companies in areas such as Big Data & Analytics, AI, Smart Factory Specializes in logistics or 3D printing.
Programming without IT skills
Because drag & bot wants to make the programming of industrial robots as easy as the operation of a smartphone. Thus, this work, which is often passed on to expensive, external service providers, should be carried out by own employees without IT knowledge. The web-based software allows, for example, the programming of robots that load and unload or screw machines and clip cables.
Drag & bot mainly targets small and medium-sized companies that use robots flexibly and therefore often have to reprogram them. So it should be possible that robot cells, for example, in the afternoon performs a different activity than in the morning. Overall, drag & bot may play a role in the digitization of industrial production in the future. Currently, robot hardware is supported by the manufacturers ABB, Kuka, Fanuc, Denso and Universal Robots.
Speedinvest i has won Cornerstone investors such as Doppelmayr or Wacker Neuson and can invest up to 50 million euros in industrial startups. The Focus Fund is headed by Marie-Helene Ametsreiter and Heinrich Göller from Munich.
Also published on Medium.